Discussions on the Ottoman proclamation of the Great Jihad (Cihad-ı Ekber) in World War i usually focus only on its repercussions on the Muslim communities living outside Anatolia and tend to take Anatolian Muslims for granted. In fact, the Ottoman Jihad propaganda had a very important Anatolian dimension as well.¹ From its declaration of general...Read More

The defeat of Nazi Germany in World War ii brought to an end what Bloch has termed the imperial phase of German history (1871–1945).¹ There is an ongoing debate whether Germany’s imperial policies were carefully planned or rather opportunist in nature. Archival evidence strongly suggests the latter, particularly where German policies in the Near and...Read More

Why did the Ottoman empire proclaim Jihad in November 1914 and who was the proclamation’s genuine author? Did the impetus come from Kaiser Wilhelm ii, the German emperor, whose faith in Jihad stemmed from the desire to undermine Berlin’s rival empires, Britain, France, and Russia, who all ruled over large Muslim populations? Or did the...Read More

In the January 1915 issue of the leading Dutch cultural journal De Gids Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857–1936) published an article under the provocative title “Holy War made in Germany.” The article offered a mixture of cynically worded scholarly analysis of great acuity, which characterizes Snouck Hurgronje’s works, and vehement moral condemnation of the war craze....Read More